Wound-fiber reinforced tanks are well known in the art. Such tanks are typically made by winding glass, graphite, or other reinforcing fibers about a tank mandrel, a wire, or other tank form. The fibers are wound in substantially helical, hoop, multi-axis, combination and/or orthowinding patterns and may be impregnated with resins during or subsequent to the winding steps. The resin is cured to create the finished product.
Heretofore, large diameter wound-fiber tanks could be manufactured and shipped in an oblated condition and then assembled on site by having a reinforced bottom and top supplied to the cylindrical side walls. For larger diameter tanks, it is known to construct tanks on site which involves applying the wound fibers to a tank mandrel at the location of the finished tank in either a vertical or horizontal direction. As one circumferential segment of the cylindrical tank wall is built and cured, the cured tank wall is extracted from the mandrel and elevated a sufficient distance while an additional cylindrical segment of the tank wall is applied and connected thereto to the raised upper section. For certain diameter tanks, these steps can be reproduced several times until a desired tank height is reached.
One limitation of the above process is that as either a tank diameter, a tank height or a tank weight exceeds a certain threshold, it is no longer practical to elevate the previously wound tank wall(s) so as to add an additional lower tank wall segment. The size and weight of the prior assembled tank wall segments are such that the engineering difficulties and safety concerns make it impractical to construct tanks in such a manner having a diameter greater than about 60 feet or a height greater than about 30 feet. Nonetheless, there remains a need in the industry for large diameter wound-filament tanks.
Accordingly, there remains room for variation and improvement within the art.